If you love to drink soft drinks, then you might want to stop and grab the water bottle instead. That’s because a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine recently has shown that drinking beverages sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners is linked to an increased risk of earlier death.
Source: Deccan Herald
It is no secret that consuming too much sugar is detrimental to health and should be reduced if you want to live a long and healthy life. Now, researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer studied data from 451, 743 individuals from 10 countries in Europe involved in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) found that people who drank two or more soft drinks a day, no matter how they were sweetened, had higher rates of death.
“This study found that consumption of total, sugar-sweetened, and artificially sweetened soft drinks were positively associated with all-cause deaths in this large European cohort. The results are supportive of public health campaigns aimed at limiting the consumption of soft drinks,” the researchers concluded, according to Healthline.
Source: Market Media
These deaths were linked to digestive diseases which include diseases of the liver, appendix, pancreas, and intestines. The study has been done reasonably well but currently, it shows that these diseases are linked to the drinks but are not directly caused by them. However, study co-author Neil Murphy said that “high soft drink consumption may be a marker of overall unhealthy diet” and a balanced diet is important for a healthy body.
Other factors were taken into account for the data, including body mass index and smoking. The researchers discovered that the participants who drank two or more soft drinks per day were 17% more likely to have an early death in comparison to the other respondents who drank less than one glass of soft drinks per month.
Source: Nile International
But if you think that drinking artificially sweetened drinks would be better, then think again. The researchers said that findings show people who consumed these drinks had a 26% higher chance of dying early compared to those who drank less than a glass per month. Although these drinks are artificially sweetened, the study shows that they are linked to significant gastrointestinal problems and increased risk of Parkinson’s disease, which has not been seen before.
While these new findings still need to be studied further, experts say that excess sugar intake is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and cancer. Ultimately, they say that to maintain a healthy diet, one should stay away from drinks high in sugar as it can lead to many health problems. Best of all, people should stick to water and other unsweetened beverages for a long and healthy life.
Time to cut down on those sugary soft drinks and drink more water instead, guys!
